Family Provision Act 1970

Subject to this section, each of the following persons is entitled to make application to the Court for provision out of the estate of a deceased person:

a spouse or de facto partner of the deceased person;

a former spouse or de facto partner of the deceased person;

a child of the deceased person;

a stepchild of the deceased person;

a grandchild of the deceased person;

a parent of the deceased person.

A person, being:

a former spouse or de facto partner of a deceased person; or

a stepchild of a deceased person,

A grandchild of a deceased person is not entitled to make an application to the Court for provision out of the estate of the deceased person unless:

the parent of the grandchild who was a child of the deceased person died before the deceased person died; or

one or both of the parents of the grandchild was or were alive at the date of the death of the deceased person and the grandchild was not maintained by that parent or by either of those parents immediately before the death of the deceased person.

A parent of a deceased person is not entitled to make an application to the Court for provision out of the estate of the deceased person unless:

the parent was maintained by the deceased person immediately before his death; or

the deceased person was not survived by a spouse or de facto partner or any of the children of the deceased person.

For the purposes of this section, a person shall not be regarded as having been maintained by the deceased person immediately before his death unless:

there was in force at that time an order of a court requiring the deceased person to pay maintenance to or for the benefit of the other person;

the deceased person was, at that time, whether under an agreement in writing or otherwise, maintaining that other person or making a contribution to the maintenance of that other person, being a contribution that, in all of the circumstances, can be regarded as other than a nominal contribution; or

a court would, if the deceased person were still living, have power to make an order requiring the deceased person to pay maintenance to or for the benefit of the other person.

For the purposes of this section, a child of the deceased person born alive after the death of that person shall be regarded as having been born before the death of the deceased person.